EuroGroup approves release of next tranche to Greece

The EuroGroup meeting in Brussels has come to an end, with Eurozone Finance Ministers agreeing to release the 6.7 billion euro bailout tranche to Greece. The meeting, which was presided over by the newly selected Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno, concluded a little after 8,30pm (Greek time) and praised Greece for implementing nearly all the prior actions laid out on the programme, but the Finance Ministers called on the Greek authorities to work urgently towards implementing the pending actions, including online auctions and the continuation of privatisations.

The tranche is expected to be released in two sub-tranches. At the press conference that followed the meeting of the 19 Eurozone Finance Ministers, the new President Mario Centeno said: “We have reached a political agreement and welcomed almost all of the prerequisites and we call on the Greek side to implement all the outstanding measures in the next few weeks.” Mr. Centeno said the faithful implementation of the measures by the Greek government proved the close cooperation between Athens and the institutions.